A Woman's Worth
by snarkysweetness
Summary: Cute little CharlieAthena ficlet. Will eventually be part of a series.


Disclaimer: You know it all…. JK is Goddess. Part of the Charlie/Athena series. Once I finish a few more, I will list the order they go in on my profile.

A Woman's Worth

"WELL MAYBE WHEN YOU LEARN TO APPRECIATE ME WE CAN TALK!" Athena yells at Charlie. She was sick of his lack of appreciation of her. All he wanted to do lately was go out with his brothers. He had responsibilities now, to her, to their kids, and oh yeah, to their marriage. He was being a dolt.

He hadn't even offered to help her with wedding plans, and when she tried to talk to him about things he always changed the subject. He was such a moronic boy sometimes. Couldn't he see how hard she was working with everything? She was sick of being the only one who did anything.

Charlie stood there, his mouth open, looking a bit like a fish. Wait…. Where had that come from? He'd been trying to get lucky, and then she'd gone off on him. There might have been some words in between then, but she was so damn cute when she was mad, he got distracted. With her face all red like that and her hair falling out of her bun, he wanted nothing more than to take her right then and there in a manly fashion. The twins were asleep, right? He COULD do it, right? It'd get her to stop being mad.

"AND NO SEX UNTIL THE WEDDING! IF WE EVEN HAVE ONE!" She continues, still pissed. She was probably going to wake the twins, but she didn't care. She was about to cry, she was so upset.

She'd been very strong and patient until now, but she wasn't having it. First, her dad was murdered AFTER she'd found out he was gay all of these years! Then, she went underground to hide muggle-borns, unable to contact anyone in her life. THEN she found out she was pregnant and had to go through all of that and labor alone, along with the first few months of her pregnancy. Then her best friend was killed in the final battle and on top of all of that, Charlie wasn't being sensitive to her needs.

He was an amazing father, she'd never deny that. He loved those kids more than anything, and he was amazing for being as happy as he was when he found out, after the battle. And he was still her best friend and she loved him more than anything, but lately he'd been all into this being home and hanging out with his brothers thing. It was driving her mad.

She was convinced he thought having sex was spending quality time together, and it was her job to deal with all wedding related things. She missed real quality time and just wanted him to show some interest in this wedding. It was theirs after all, not just hers.

"What? That's crazy…. Of course there's going to be a wedding… and I mean, baby… no sex? We still have time to make up for," he says, trying to wrap an arm around her to pull her close, wanting to be cute to get her less mad at him. It'd always worked before. And after all, they had been dating for almost ten years, he was pretty sure he knew her well enough by now, not to mention the sixteen years they'd been best friends.

She crosses her arms, letting him rest his arm there, but not giving in, or pushing him away. In fact, she was scarily calm now compared to what she had been a minute before.

"That's right. No sex. Maybe that will inspire you to give a shit… or oh yeah, move up the date? Actually… pick a date, how about that? Or are our children going to bastards forever?" She says sternly, like her mother.

"Athena… who cares what people say? It's none of their business about our kids. And I told you… if you want to move the wedding up, that's fine, but don't think it's going to stop my mum or yours from being crazy. And… no, you cannot lock them in a closet until our wedding day either." Charlie says, slightly annoyed. She was so touchy about this wedding thing. The way she was going on, someone would think she was pregnant again, which was silly, right?

It wasn't silly, in fact, one of the reasons Athena was so upset was because she thought she could be pregnant, and she didn't want to wait around to find out. She wanted to get married as soon as possible. Even if she wasn't, she wanted to be married already. Why he hadn't asked her after Hogwarts was beyond her. She most likely would have told him they were too young, but the thought was what counted.

"I know… why don't you and your brothers go have a couple of rounds, then the five of you can plan the wedding amongst yourselves. In fact… marry one of them, and then go shag yourself, because I'm not going to do it, not until you learn to appreciate my worth and realize how much effort I've had to put in lately. Maybe if you start giving as much as I do, like before, I wouldn't be upset." She says, emotionally, turning and leaving the room.

Charlie was utterly confused. He hadn't been acting differently, had he? Sure, all this marriage talk was a little scary. He loved her… more than anything, but marriage was so…. He didn't think he needed a piece of paper to prove it, and it bothered him that all of a sudden she seemed to need this proof. He still felt guilty about everything that happened during the war and not being able to be there for her. Was this why she was being so crazy about this? She thought he didn't care about her?

He had no clue. Maybe Bill would know something. He had to; he was the married one after all.

Athena sat in her room, holding Alan, crying to herself. She hated crying, there was no greater sign of weakness. Like her parents, she was good at hiding her emotions, except in front of Charlie, she just loved that man so damn much it scared the hell out of her.

She didn't know why she wanted to be married so much. She hadn't given a damn about it until the twins came along. She had never felt so alone and useless in her life until she went underground. She was helping people, yes, but she wasn't out there fighting, like she wanted. Sure, she'd gotten a good time in during the final battle, but what good had it done her? Tonks and Fred were both dead.

Part of her wanted to stake her claim on Charlie, make sure he didn't leave. After all, she was ruined woman now, right? Ugh… that was stupid, if she was, it was all his fault anyway.

"Your dad is stupid, son," Athena mutters to the doe-eyed baby in front of, his fist in his mouth, sucking happily at it, nodding as his mum spoke, no idea what she was saying.

"Yes, good boy, always agree with mummy," she says, holding him close. He always made her calm, cute little thing.

She sighs, thinking about Charlie again. All she wanted was for him to do something romantic, show a slight interest in their wedding, tell her he knew what a good job she was doing raisin their children; was that so much to ask?

Bill rubs his temples. His brother really was a moron. All the flames from the dragons must have fried his brains. That had to be it. There was no other explanation as to why his brother all of a sudden had turned into the biggest moron regarding his soon to be wife.

He'd known her his entire life, why was he acting stupid now?

"So… are you afraid of getting married, is that why you're… being a moron when she tries to consult… include you on her plans?"

Bill had always been an expert with women, he was a ladies', and with that title, he took it upon himself to actually understand women.

"I just… don't get why it's so important to her all of a sudden," he says angrily, rubbing a spot on the back of his neck. "I mean… why can't we just be like before?" He asks, missing the way things were before her dad had died.

"Because they can't be. Everything has changed, and you have children now. She wants to marry you, what's wrong with that? You're upsetting her because she thinks you don't care about her and don't give a damn about this wedding, so she's making a bigger deal out of it to get your attention is all. Stop hiding out in the pub with George and Percy and go home, cook her dinner, offer to let her sleep and put the kids to bed… something so she knows she isn't the only one doing anything," he says, annoyed with his brother.

"He is so sveeet, isn't he?" Fleur says, coming in to bring them more tea, kissing Bill. "He is so sensitive to others." She says happily.

Charlie watches them. They were a bit disgusting. But… did Bill have a point? He helped with the kids… right? Well, sometimes… at first. Come to think of it, he had gotten a bit lazy about it lately, and he hadn't done anything nice for her in a long time…

"Fleur, is Bill right?" Charlie asks.

She looks at him and nods. "Even a woman as independent as her needs to be shown affection vonce in avhile." She says. She adored her soon to be sister-in-law, but the girl was so stubborn, it drove Fleur nuts.

Charlie thought for a moment. "All… right…thanks, I think," he says, needing a plan of action now.

Athena comes downstairs, exhausted. It had taken an entire hour to calm Selene down after Alan had bitten her. Then it had taken another hour to feed them and get them both to sleep, something that got harder as they got older.

She hoped River would be less temperamental. Even though she wasn't sure is she was pregnant (in fact, part of her hoped she wasn't simply because she wanted their next child to be a honeymoon baby), she had named their next child, to herself of course. She hadn't even been able to tell Charlie her suspicions because he was so distant lately.

She stops at the bottom stair, grabbing for her wand. Someone was here… there were candles on in the kitchen. She didn't even know they had candles in there.

She moves inside the kitchen, stopping as she saw there was food on the table, food she hadn't cooked. Charlie… it had to be, who else would think macaroni and cheese was a meal? She smiled. He had tried at least.

She felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind.

"I um… it's the only thing I knew how to make…but I did get you a present," he says, handing her an envelope.

She turns to him, smiling before kissing him. "Thank you," she says, not so mad at him now.

"You're welcome… I'm sorry I've been a prat lately… I just…we've never lived together, you know? I just… assumed there was no point in being romantic," he says, kissing her forehead. "And as far as the twins go, you're much better at getting them to stop crying than I am, so I gave up. But I promise, I'll start trying again."

"Good, that's all that matters, is that you try," Athena says, looking him in the eyes before kissing his cheek and turning, heading to the table and sitting down.

Charlie sits next to her, bringing an arm around her and pulling her close. "Open your present," he says in her ear, giving her chills.

She gives him a curious look, wondering what he could have gotten her. Tickets to the World Cup maybe? That sounded like something he would get.

She opens it and takes out a thick sheet of parchment, a look of shock on her face. He didn't… he had! Oh that wonderful, wonderful man!

She throws her arms around him and kisses him deeply before pulling away and placing kisses all over his face. "You wonderful, amazing, charming…I love you." She says, looking back down, trailing her fingers over the letters.

He had made up wedding invitations…. With a date set… in three weeks. That was a short mount of time to get everything ready but she didn't care. He'd put in the most amazing bit of effort and she loved him for it.

"Thank you darling… I…I'm sorry about earlier."

"Don't be, I'm a prat. You work your ass off at the Ministry, raising our kids, and planning our wedding. I should have been helping you with it… I just…part of me didn't get why you were so obsessed with getting married, but I get it now. You want our kids to have everything, and that means being married," he says, kneading her waist. "And… don't think I don't want to get married, I did propose after all; I just don't need a piece of paper to prove I love you." He says honestly.

"That may be the most romantic thing I've ever heard you say." She says, climbing into his lap.

"I thought you said no sex until the wedding." He teases, giving her a wink.

"I lied… I had to inspire you to be creative, and I think it worked." She says, kissing him.

"Oh, it worked all right," he mutters right before she kissed him.

She knew she still had to talk to him about other things. They had other issues to work out, and she still needed to tell him of her suspicions about their family growing larger, but that could wait until later. Until then, she wanted to get in some honeymoon practice, after all, if there was one thing Charlie Weasley was never lacking in, it was love-making skills.


End file.
